Enter the Squeaker

We had a scheduled power outage for Saturday from 8 am until noon.  Considering how hot it's been lately, that was the perfect excuse to go into town and catch an early movie.

On the way back, I hear squeaking just as we reached the stairs of the pedestrian bridge in front of the village.  Not the kind of squeaking one gets out of a rat, but instead that very special squeaking only made by young kittens.

On a planter next to the stairs, there was a tiny little kitten squeaking quite loudly.  This presented a dilemma.  All my prior experiences with tiny kittens involved having a mommy cat to take care of them.  There was also the possibility that a mommy cat was moving her kittens and this was either the first in the new location or the last one awaiting pickup.  We decided to wait and see what happened.

Four hours later, my daughter became aware of the kitten and immediately went to check it out.  There were no signs of a mommy cat or any litter mates.  The poor little squeaker had been abandoned - probably by someone who didn't spay a cat and didn't want any kittens.

My daughter brought it (gender is so hard to determine on very young kittens) back and then she and my wife took our new friend to the vet for a quick look.  I was hoping the vet could keep the kitten for a few days, but tiny kittens require multiple feedings per day, from early morning to late evening, and the vet didn't have anyone staying late.  The official vet guess of the age was 2 weeks.

We've now got vet-approved goat milk for the kitten.  Feeding via syringe resulted in more milk on the outside of the kitten than the inside, so my wife ran by the vet yesterday to get a kitten sized baby bottle.  The kitten really likes that.

Stripy Emperor still isn't quite sure what to do about having another cat in the house (he's annoyed enough that my daughter's cat is here for the summer), so has been spending a lot of time hiding in the master bedroom.  My daughter's cat showed a little interest and then started ignoring the kitten.

So far, no name has been assigned.  Little Squeaker is being used as a temporary name.  My suggestion of EBC (for Emergency Backup Cat) was rejected.

 

Yesterday my wife told me to listen closer to our squeaky ball of cuteness.  There was a very faint clicking sound.  After listening very carefully, I could tell it correlated to a slight vibration.  The sound was a proto-purr, still under development.

 

How is Little One doing?

My squeaky explorer has been busy.  First, a small grey rectangular plastic bin was a secure enough container.  I warned my wife the kitten would get over the wall soon.  My wife declared we had plenty of time.  10 minutes later, the kitten was over the wall.

This resulted in a larger red plastic bin replacing the gray one.  The walls were significantly higher.  My daughter gave Little Squeaker some stuffed animals to nuzzle up against.  I warned that the stuffed platypus was in a position to facilitate an easy escape, but my wife was quite firm in stating that this wouldn't be a problem.  Yesterday morning, the kitten escaped via platypult.

I removed the platypus and warned my wife the our squeaky explorer would soon be able to get out unassisted.  My wife told me that this wouldn't happen any time soon and that having the bin closed up inside Stripy Emperor's palace would keep the kitten from getting far in the unlikely event of an escape from the bin.

Last night, with a quiet plop followed by a squeak the wall was proven to no longer be sufficient containment.  Happily, the bars of the palace were just under 3.5 cm apart and the squeaky end of Little Squeaker can't fit through anything narrower than about 3.6 cm.  Then my little squeaky escape artist figured out that the corners had a 4 cm gap and promptly went plop (SQUEAK!) onto the floor.

The platypus, some more stuffed animals, and one well feed Little Squeaker have been transferred to the old rabbit cage.  I measured everything and none of the gaps exceed 3.2 cm.

For now, His Majesty will hiss and then stalk off if Little Squeaker is brought too close.  So far, there's been no other hostility like he's shown to my daughter's cat.  Those two will try to swat each other by reaching through bars.  My daughter and her cat go back to university in about a week.  That should allow His Majesty to relax a bit so I work on convincing him that Little Squeaker will be an ok addition to the household.

I was getting concerned.  Little Squeaker was quite capable of ejecting considerable volumes of liquids, but was lacking in the department.

The vet said it might take quite some time.  Online sources agreed.  However, once this exceeded 10 days, even my lovely wife finally decided to pressure the vet into checking.  Turns out our little furry friend was indeed seriously constipated and the vet managed to remove the blockage using a cotton swap.

Although this was a trauma for our Squeaky Conqueror, the timing worked out well.  I was nearly done shopping at Carrefour when the vet was done with the kitten, so my wife brought the kitten over to join the expedition.  I guess the security guy at the front gate didn't notice that the oddly shaped purse my wife was carrying was a cat purse.

One bit of worrying news.  We found 1 flea on the kitten.  I don't know if this was accidentally picked up in the vet's office or if it's been around longer.  It's dead now, but we need to to a thorough check to make sure there aren't any more.

Thanks for the updates EL! I really miss having a pet around. 

Would you like me to send you a Crazy Cat Lady starter kit?  It comes with 6 kittens.

The good news - the vet uncorked things on Little Squeaker's back end.  The bad news.  It's been a bit of a  -storm ever since.

Litter box training has begun, but That Which Squeaks doesn't seem to understand the concept.

   Good Luck 

No thanks El! Been there, done that.

All indications continue to indicate the the Squeaky Ball of Cuteness is female.

Her face looks a bit ... alien in nature.  Guess I need to research Space Cat names.

Astrid
Leona
Inertia
Etheria
Nebula

Sadly, Serenity got shot down (damned Reavers!).

So, after much bloodshed polite discussion, the name the 3 humans finally agreed upon was presented to His Majesty, who decided that this whole thing was taking too much attention from him, so he immediately agreed.

Pandora Kitty, Assistant Backup Cat to Stripy Emperor.  Informally, just Pandora.  We're all sure she's full of surprises (some good, some maybe not so good).

The name was selected on Sunday.  Coincidentally, Pandora decided to ignore all prior attempts to train her and started using the litter box all on her own at about the time her name was assigned.

Once she's a little bigger, she'll get promoted from Assistant Backup Cat to Backup Cat.